taber@ultnix.enet.dec.com (Patrick St. Joseph Teahan Taber) (05/23/91)
The following RFD was worked out between Jeff Mandel and myself. As such we agree that it is a reasonably neutral statement of what we think the .palmtops proposal is. Jeff wrote it, I'm posting it, we solicit your comments and ask everyone to please participate in Matt Austin's straw poll to determine if there's enough support to call for votes using this name. >>>==>PStJTT ======================================================================== The PROPOSAL This proposal concerns the creation of a new group: comp.sys.palmtops (unmoderated) Mandate: Discussion in comp.sys.palmtops will encompass machines which can be operated on the open palm, and which are used as pocket organizers. Examples of palmtops include the Sharp Wizards, Casio BOSSs, Portfolios, HP95's, Psion Organizers, etc. While it is possible that calculators such as the HP48 might be used as pocket organizers, it is suggested that such discussion occur in comp.sys.handhelds, which already possesses the mandate for the discussion of calculators. Discussion: The current group, comp.sys.handhelds, was established for the discussion of calculators which had the facility to be programmable. With the emergence of handheld devices witch were intended to function primarily as organizers, this group became the point-of-entry for these users to the Usenet. As the group has a large and active readership of HP48 (and related architecture) users and programmers, the group has not served the user primarily interested in pocket organizers as well as it could. Several possibilities have been discussed: 1) An HP-only group. While there are many common interests amongst HP calculator users, it is unlikely that there will be common interests with HP95 users. 2) An HP48-only group. While the majority of c.s.h readers appear to be HP48 users, a significant minority are users of the HP28, HP41, etc. It is not clear how their interests will best be served, as some want in with the HP48, and some want out. 3) A group which serves all systems which use RPN, or are based on the HP saturn processor, or calculators made by HP. This proposal has a few adherents, but has failed to emerge as a consensus favorite. 4) The current proposal, which removes the pocket organizers from handhelds. If option 1) is excluded, and options 3) and 4) acheive identical groupings with different names, it is evident that there are two approaches to the problem, which have been labelled "split" (3&4) and "splinter" (2). In a previous vote, there was evidence of both significant support and significant opposition to the "splinter" approach. As this vote was deemed flawed, a new RFD was issued by Chris Spell and Jeff Mandel for this approach. As there has been significant call for consideration for the "split" approach, these authors have agreed to permit discussion of this approach, to see if it generates more support than the previous RFD. If this proves to be the case, Chris and Jeff will withdraw the "splinter" RFD, and support a CFV on this proposal. In order to best gauge the feelings of the readership, We encourage everyone to state their preference for one of the two approaches in a succinct message. As Matt Austern is already conducting a straw poll on the issue, I encourage people to participate in that if they feel they have sufficient understanding of the issues. -- >>>==>PStJTT Patrick St. Joseph Teahan Taber, KC1TD Those who think, write. Those who can't, spell.